Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/27971
Appears in Collections:Biological and Environmental Sciences Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: The relationship between the abundance of the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti) and its habitat: a conservation concern in Mbam-Djerem National Park, Cameroon
Author(s): Kamgang, Serge Alexis
Bobo, Kadiri Serge
Maisels, Fiona
Ambahe, Ruffin Dupleix Delarue
Ambassa Ongono, Désiré Edgar
Gonder, Mary Katherine
Johnson, Paul
Marino, Jorgelina
Sinsin, Brice
Keywords: Great apes
Mbam-Djerem National Park
Pan troglodytes ellioti
Habitat variation
Nest abundance
Distance sampling
Issue Date: 1-Oct-2018
Date Deposited: 12-Oct-2018
Citation: Kamgang SA, Bobo KS, Maisels F, Ambahe RDD, Ambassa Ongono DE, Gonder MK, Johnson P, Marino J & Sinsin B (2018) The relationship between the abundance of the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti) and its habitat: a conservation concern in Mbam-Djerem National Park, Cameroon. BMC Ecology, 18, Art. No.: 40. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-018-0199-3
Abstract: Background Understanding the relationship between great apes and their habitat is essential for the development of successful conservation strategies. The chimpanzee Pan troglodytes ellioti is endemic to Nigeria and Cameroon, and occupies an ecologically diverse range of habitats from forests to forest-savannah mosaic in Mbam-Djerem National Park (MDNP) in Cameroon. The habitat variation in chimpanzees is poorly understood in MDNP which provides an excellent opportunity to assess ecological factors that shape the abundance and distribution patterns of P. t. ellioti over a small geographic scale. Results We counted 249 nests along 132 km of transects in total. Of these, 119 nests along 68 km occurred in dense forest and 130 nests along 64 km in forest-savannah mosaic. Chimpanzee density was 0.88 [95% CI (0.55–1.41)] individuals/km2 in the dense forest and 0.59 [95% CI (0.19–1.76)] in the forest-savannah mosaic. Nest abundance varied with vegetation type and was higher in areas with dense canopy cover, steeper slopes and relatively higher altitudes. Conclusions Our estimates of chimpanzee densities were lower than reported in other studied populations in the range of the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee. However, we found that habitat features, slope and altitude likely play a role in shaping patterns of chimpanzee nesting ecology. Further studies need to be focused on nest decay rates and phenology of useful plants in order to model chimpanzee abundance and distribution in Mbam-Djerem National Park.
DOI Link: 10.1186/s12898-018-0199-3
Rights: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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